Because arguments about the NBA GOAT spring up often among groups of friends or on social media, we decided to make things easier for you by creating a GOAT debate cheat sheet where we give you the best stats and arguments for every GOAT candidate imaginable, from Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to lesser discussed candidates like Oscar Robertson and Shaquille O’Neal.
We should mention that the arguments for certain candidates aren’t foolproof due to the fact that some statistics, like blocks and steals, and awards, like Player of the Month or 3rd Team All-NBA, didn’t exist early on in the NBA, meaning players like Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain could have an even stronger case if they did.
Regardless, you can check out our GOAT debate cheat sheet and the arguments that can be made for each candidate below.
LeBron James
Most All-NBA selections: Passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant and stands at No. 1 with 18 selections. He’s both the youngest and fourth-oldest to be selected for an All-NBA team. One caveat here: There was no All-NBA 3rd Team during Abdul-Jabbar’s time in the NBA. If there had been, perhaps he would top this list.
Most All-NBA 1st Team selections: With 13, he has two more than the next guys: Bryant and Karl Malone.
Most points scored all-time: Passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar here too and is now set to put a good amount of room between himself and everyone else, as he does not look like he’ll be slowing down anytime soon.
Most All-Star selections along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: He’s been an All-Star 19 different times, tied for the most for a single player in league history with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar through the 2022-23 season. He’ll almost certainly hold this record on his own next season.
Most points scored in the playoffs: He’s running up the score by now. With 7,631 already, he’s got over 1,600 more points than the player in second (Michael Jordan).
Most playoff games won: Moved past Derek Fisher and Tim Duncan in 2020. He’s got a 65.4 percent winning percentage in the playoffs. That’s slightly worse than Jordan, who had a 66.5 percent win rate in the playoffs.
Most steals in the playoffs: Jordan and Scottie Pippen are right behind him, but he may continue to extend his lead over the years to come.
Most playoff Win Shares: He’s No. 1 in playoff Win Shares by a mile at 55.7. In second place is Jordan at 39.8. Third is Duncan with 37.8.
Most playoff game-winning buzzer beaters: At five, he has the most playoff buzzer beaters ever. He has as many as Jordan (3), Bryant (1) and Kawhi Leonard (1) combined. Strangely enough, he has more playoff buzzer beaters than regular-season buzzer beaters, of which he only has two.
Best Value Over Replacement Player in regular season: He’s No. 1 in regular-season VORP at 145.9. Second place is Jordan at 116.1 and third is John Stockton at 106.5.
Best Value Over Replacement Player in playoffs: He also leads all players in NBA history in playoff VORP at 33.9.
Most consecutive double-digit scoring games in the regular season: One of his crazier accomplishments. He’s the first player ever to hit 10-plus points in 1,000-plus games in a row.
Most Player of the Week awards: Has now doubled Kobe Bryant (and change) with 67 of these to Bryant’s 33. He does benefit here from the NBA moving to give out two Player of the Week awards weekly (one for each conference) starting in the 2001-02 season.
Most Player of the Month awards: He has more of these than the next two players on the list combined (Bryant and Jordan). Again, the NBA started giving out a Player of the Month award for each conference starting in 2001-02 season, so he does get a bit of help here. Also, the award didn’t even exist before 1979.
Most points in All-Star games: He’s the only player ever with at least 300 points scored in All-Star contests.
Michael Jordan
Most Finals MVPs: He’s got two more Finals MVPs than the No. 2 player on the list, LeBron James. Along with Shaquille O’Neal, he’s the only player to win Finals MVP three times in a row… and he did it twice. The NBA didn’t start giving out Finals MVP until 1968-69, however, so Bill Russell might be No. 1 on this list had the award existed in his era.
Highest career scoring average: He almost lost his top spot here to Wilt Chamberlain during his Wizards days, but now, it’s extremely likely he’ll remain No. 1 for years to come. He averaged 30.12 points per game for his career while Chamberlain averaged 30.07 points per contest. No other player is above 27.36.
Most scoring championships: He’s got an astonishing 10 scoring titles on his resume. Chamberlain is second with seven and no other player has more than four. From 1986-87 to 1997-98, he won the scoring championship every full season he played.
Most 1st Team All-Defense selections: A true two-way player, he was named to 1st Team All-Defense a record nine times. He’s tied with Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Gary Payton for most 1st Team All-Defense selections ever.
Best career PER: He’s got a slight lead on LeBron James here. His 27.9 career PER is tops in league history (minimum: 1,000 minutes played) while James’ 27.3 is No. 2.
Best playoff BPM: Among players with at least 2,000 career playoff minutes, he’s No. 1 in BPM at 11.1. James is No. 2 with 10.2.
Wilt Chamberlain
Best scoring season: In 1961-62, he averaged 50.4 points per game. You know that’s never going to be topped.
Top scoring game: He famously once scored 100 points in a game. Kobe’s 81-point masterpiece vs. the Raptors comes at a distant No. 2.
Most rebounds in career: He’s got over 2,300 more rebounds than the No. 2 finisher, Bill Russell, and over 6,400 more rebounds than the No. 3 player on the list, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Most rebounds per game: One of just two players ever with over 22 rebounds per game for a career. The only other is Russell.
Top rebounding season: He’s the only player ever to average 25-plus rebounds per game in a season… and he did it three times. One of those years, he averaged 27.2 rebounds per contest.
Most times leader in rebounds: He led the league in nightly rebounds 11 times in his career. That makes him the player to have led the league in rebounding the most times.
Most rebounds in a game: On Nov. 24, 1960, he secured 55 rebounds in a game against the Boston Celtics. That’s the single highest rebounding performing in league history. Only he and Russell have ever secured at least 50 rebounds in a game.
Most rebounds in a playoff game: His 41 rebounds in an April 5, 1967 playoff game gave him the highest rebounding playoff performance ever. He’s the only player with more than 40 rebounds in a postseason contest.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Most MVP awards: His six career MVP awards are the most for a player ever. He won three apiece with Bucks and Lakers. At No. 2, Bill Russell and Michael Jordan are tied with five each.
Most All-Star selections along with LeBron James: He was an All-Star 19 different times, tied for the most for a single player in league history with LeBron James through the 2022-23 season. He only missed All-Star honors once in his 20-year career.
Most regular-season wins: At 1,074, he’s got the most regular-season wins in NBA history. He has 60 more wins than the next player, Robert Parish. He’s one of just three players with over 1,000 regular-season wins along with Parish and Tim Duncan.
Most regular season Win Shares: He’s No. 1 in career Win Shares with 273.4. LeBron James is now No. 2 here with 254.3 Win Shares.
Most career Offensive Win Shares: Author of the unstoppable Skyhook, he has the highest Offensive Win Shares ever. LeBron James is No. 2 at 177.0 compared to his 178.9 so that one might be beaten over the coming seasons.
Bill Russell
Most NBA titles won: At 11 championships, he’s the only player with more rings than fingers.
Most Finals appearances: He made the Finals 12 times and only lost one of them. LeBron James is tied for third with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 10 Finals appearances.
Most rebounds in playoffs: He’s the only player with over 4,000 rebounds in the postseason.
Best rebound average in the playoffs: His 24.9 rebounds in the playoffs is No. 1 all-time. He’s one of just two players along with Wilt Chamberlain to average 20 rebounds in the postseason.
Highest career Defensive Win Shares: At 133.6, he has the No. 1 mark in Defensive Win Shares ever. Second place in the stat for a career, Tim Duncan, trails pretty far behind at 106.3.
Magic Johnson
Highest assists per game: He averaged an astounding 11.2 assists per game for his career. He’s one of just two players, along with John Stockton, with over 10 assists per game for a career.
Most assists in the playoffs: His 2,346 assists in the postseason is No. 1 and No. 2 on the list, LeBron James, has 1,919. He’s the only player ever with over 2,000 assists in the playoffs.
Highest assist average in playoffs: Only player ever to average more than 11 assists in the postseason, and he’s at 12.3. Second place is Stockton at 10.1.
Most triple-doubles in the playoffs: His 30 playoff triple-doubles is the most ever, though LeBron James is closing in with 28 now. No. 3 on the list, Jason Kidd, is miles behind at 11.
Kobe Bryant
Most 1st Team All-Defense selections: He’s in a tie with Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett and Gary Payton for most 1st Team All-Defense selections with nine each.
Most All-Star Game MVPs: He won All-Star Game MVP four times, putting him in a tie with Bob Pettit for the most all-time.
Most game-winning regular-season buzzer beaters: At seven, he’s tied with Joe Johnson for the most game-winning regular-season buzzer-beaters. His shooting percentages in those situations were not so good, though. On the bright side, he hit six of his seven while his team was trailing, so he really saved the day for the Lakers often.
Tim Duncan
Most seasons with a winning record: He had a winning record 19 times, every year of his career.
Most wins with the same team: He’s the only player with more than 1,000 wins with the same team.
Hakeem Olajuwon
All-time blocks leader: His 3,380 career blocks are the most ever, almost 600 more than second place, Dikembe Mutombo. He has the most blocks on record, though Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain would probably have more if blocks were recorded in their heydays.
Highest block average in the playoffs: He blocked 3.3 shots per playoff game, the highest mark ever. He’s the only player on record to average over three blocks in the postseason.
Shaquille O’Neal
Most seasons with best field-goal percentage: He had a career field-goal percentage of 58.2 percent, he led the league in field-goal percentage 10 times. He’s the only player to do that at least 10 times.
